Alltel Offers Office Sync Mobile

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=6204' target='_blank'>http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.a...?ContentId=6204</a><br /><br /></div><i>"American operator Alltel is launching Office Sync, a service that allows users to send and receive e-mail in real time from their Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices. Office Sync also enables customers to view their calendars and contacts while on the go. The service is initially available on the Palm Treo 650 and the UTStarcom PPC-6700, a Windows Mobile 5.0 Wi-Fi-enabled Pocket PC device. Both devices are equipped with an Intel processor, backlit QWERTY keyboard and Bluetooth Wireless Technology."</i><br /><br />For being a regional Cell phone company in the US, you have to hand it to Alltel for stepping up to play with the big boys in their offerings. Consistently they offer at least 1 Pocket PC device (which is more than I can say for T-Mobile over the past 2 years), and are willing to cater to business customers. Anyone here an Alltel user? Any stories (good or bad)?

[ctmagnus]

$39.99/month for personal or business? :? A 4SmartPhone subscription costs a little over twice that per year, at least for their professional account. And you're not tied to a carrier with 4SmartPhone.

[wirelessbeachbum]

$39.99/month for personal or business? :? A 4SmartPhone subscription costs a little over twice that per year, at least for their professional account. And you're not tied to a carrier with 4SmartPhone.

That 39.99 includes your unlimited wireless data usage.

Alltel also has data roaming in place with Verizon, so the coverage for 1x services are about the same as vzw, and the data plan is less money...

4smartphone is a nice service, but many in the corporate world need to sync with a corporate server, and most personal users can be served fine by syncing directly to their desktop.

[ctmagnus]

$39.99/month for personal or business? :? A 4SmartPhone subscription costs a little over twice that per year, at least for their professional account. And you're not tied to a carrier with 4SmartPhone.

That 39.99 includes your unlimited wireless data usage.

:oops: That part of the Geekzone article didn't click with me.

[Palmguy]

I have Alltel service, nothing data related though, just phone...but their service has been absolutely excellent from what I've experienced.

[Edgar_]

Alltell seem progressive in their customer products.

I read they also are starting a new program that allows you to pick 10 phone numbers, land line or cellular, doesn't have to be Alltell's and you get unlimited messaging and calls to those numbers (local or long distance).

No additional contract renewal required to set up - just a plan of $59 or more.

This is a really great plan - wife, kids, home, work - look at your top ten numbers on your bill - if like mine its near 40% of the bill.

[bradray]

I've been with Alltel now since the beginning of the year. I switched from T-Mobile to get myself the PPC-6700.

Initially I couldn't get service in my house, but they put another tower up in my neighborhood and it has been great since then.

It's also been a bumpy ride with their data plans. When I first joined I had to pay $69 a month for unlimitied data plan (as if I had a modem card) and an additional $20 a month to get unlimited SMS (so I could use the exchange activesync realtime sync that uses SMS).

The data access was phenomenal compared to T-Mobile, EVDO really is all that I'd heard. The service from the company has been top-notch, evening listening to our complaints abour the data plan prices. They recently came out with the different smartphone plan that gives unlimited texting and data access for $39. Finally a decently competetive price.

About a month ago they ran into some kind of problem with all the PPC-6700's on their network that botches up Exchange Activesync's update SMS messages, still waiting of them to either fix that or release the new patch that will allow the updated version of realtime syncing through exchange (the one that doesn't use SMS). In the mean time I'm sync'ing every 5 minutes =(.

I've loved using my PPC-6700 on the Alltel network, it really opening me up to realtime e-mail and calendaring, which has been wonderful as I'm a IT consultant, so my calendar is about as important as my e-mail. Using Pocket Informant with Exchange Activesync has been perfect. I'll check out this Office Sync product, but I'll most likely just stick with Exchange Server Activesync.